Following his drink driving incident and subsequent stay in rehab, Ant decided to take the year off from television work to recoup and prepare himself for a return in 2019, with Holly Willoughby presenting with Declan Donnelly instead.

Despite his absence from the show, ITV weather presenter Emma Jesson told followers on Twitter that she had learned that Ant has been "secretly involved" with the show all along.

An ITV presenter claimed on Twitter Ant had been involved [ITV]

She said in a tweet: "I am informed that Ant was consulted for scripted Holly & Dec links for @imacelebrity series 2018 #imacelebrity⁠ ⁠ #ImACeleb⁠ ⁠ @Ant_McPartlin @antanddec ... top move production team if this is the case, can see his hallmarks there".